July 21 is going to be a busy day for The Tube Shack owner Aaron Frisby and his staff — and not just because it’s the height of summer.
They’ve picked that day to attempt to break a Guinness World Record.
The goal? To have 215.10 metres of tubes along the Cowichan River.
That’s a lot of tubes.
“We work it out to be 194 tubes,” Frisby said.
That also works out to a lot of tubers. Frisby has heard from residents concerned with having too many people out on the river. He says he is capping attendance and registration is required because online booking statistics will be integral to confirming the official record.
“We are going to limit it to 250 so it doesn’t get too crazy,” Frisby said. “The number that we’re limiting to is basically a regular day on the river so it’s not like we’re increasing the number of tubers, we’re just getting them to all come at once,” he explained.
The event will start at 9 a.m. and tubers will launch from the Tube Shack’s dock.
Where the chain ends up…well, we’ll just have to wait and see.
“I haven’t measured it out but I imagine it’s going to end somewhere around the foot bridge by the duck pond,” Frisby said.
Prior to setting out, participants will get instructions which will include some education on river-safe sunscreen, as well as a reminder about keeping the river free of garbage.
Two lifeguards on stand-up paddle boards will be present for safety.
SEE RELATED: Water levels in Cowichan Lake now considered “dire”
Frisby said he’s not at all worried about the flow of the river for the event.
“We think we’re going to be running at 4.5cm/s most of the summer,” he said, noting the low levels will affect plenty of operations before his.
“Tubing is probably one of the last things we are worried about with water levels,” he said.
The world record attempt has been in the works for quite a while.
“We’ve been wanting to do it for a few years. There were different types of records that we looked at but we found this one that we thought would be easier than others,” Frisby said.
sarah.simpson@cowichanvalleycitizen.com
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